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HUD Fraud

First GSA, then the IRS, then SS Disability, and HUD as well.http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...n-d-williamson
Congress wants to raise taxes while this stuff goes on with nobody minding the store ... fix this stuff before they suck another dime out of the economy.

Just a small sample from the article:

The Houston-area Harris County Housing Authority (HCHA) has wasted or misspent nearly $30 million of U.S. taxpayers’ money from 2010 to 2012, and the federal government wants its money back. The catch: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is for obvious reasons demanding that those wasted federal funds not be paid back out of other federal funds, and the HCHA’s total non-federal revenues this year are expected to amount to a mere $52,000. At that rate, HCHA should have paid back HUD sometime in the middle of the 26th century, assuming it dedicates 100 percent of its non-federal funds to doing so.

A newly released audit from HUD’s inspector general found $27.5 million in mismanaged spending by the Harris County Agency during the three-year period in question. The audit came in response to an excellent investigative series by the Houston Chronicle, which found, among other things, that hundreds of thousands of dollars had been paid to friends and family of agency employees — not only without board approval, but without so much as a contract. Among those on the HCHA gravy train were convicted felons with no qualification for the work they were hired to do but boasting a more important asset: links to management. A longtime associate of the CEO of the organization was paid more than $135,000, while the CEO’s father-in-law was put on the payroll of a subcontractor awarded millions in contracts.

The agency managed to spend millions of dollars on a veteran-themed housing development called Patriots by the Lake — which, despite some $8 million being poured into the project, was never built.

And, in a classic political move, former CEO Guy Rankin was bought out of his contract for $137,000 last year, but he had left the agency in such poor shape that it did not have the funds to pay him off. He has sued, and the mess is currently in court. He is under investigation by the FBI.

So: Boo, Houston! Except that Houston is hardly alone in this. Cities in Massachusetts have seen similar scandals at the state’s HUD-backed agencies, with executives paid fat salaries and subject to little or no oversight. The Philadelphia Housing Authority saw the mass resignation of its board last year after it was revealed that the agency’s executive director had dedicated $1 million in agency funds to questionable purposes, including hiring professional belly dancers and settling with plaintiffs in sexual-harassment complaints against him. In New Orleans, there was nearly $1 million in embezzlement. Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other cities have had similar troubles. The director of the HUD field office in San Juan was the subject of a 40-count indictment on fraud and theft charges.

The federal housing-subsidy program is a $25 billion–a–year racket, a national crime wave headquartered in Washington but with franchises in every city.

G.Clinchy@gmail.com"Know in your heart that all things are possible. We couldn't conceive of a miracle if none ever happened." -Libby Fudim

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